Brandon here and I am very excited to answer any questions about the Operations spot for 2010. In addition to camping this thread (I make it a point to not go places without wifi, hehe) I'm typically available via messenger, so feel free to hit me up off the forums too if you want to actually discuss something. The info for that should be obtainable by clicking my name at the top of this post and going to my profile page.

I also plan on camping this topic as well so any guestion I'll be happy to answer to the best I can.I hope to come back as director next year to improve on areas that hurt the con this year and fortify the ones that ran with no trouble.

It's been suggested in other threads that there will likely be a hard cap on attendance this year; as Director of Operations what sort of cap do you believe we can actually live with given the layout of the hotel?

Also as director of operations, how do you intend to structure lines, fire escape routes, and (obvious to the public) security for areas of the convention?

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It's been suggested in other threads that there will likely be a hard cap on attendance this year; as Director of Operations what sort of cap do you believe we can actually live with given the layout of the hotel?

Also as director of operations, how do you intend to structure lines, fire escape routes, and (obvious to the public) security for areas of the convention?

As a rough estimate, I believe a hard cap of 6500 with a soft cap of around 5500 would be adequate. I can forsee 5500 being doable, but it would be hard to tell before we get all of our planning together. 6500 seems like a solid absolute max, assuming it's sunny and that the square is usable for people needing to get outside.

As far as line structure, fire routes, I want to work a bit harder at getting more rope and poll line regulation in place so that we don't have to have attendees guessing where they go next. There was a bit of this at con this year, but a bit more of it I think would really tie together the reg setup.

As far as security, I would rather not discuss that, as it would make things less secure =P

To clarify that point; do you believe in security Through obscurity? Or do you instead believe that obscurity is an -aspect- of security, one of many layers?

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There is quite possibly going to be a cap put in place this year. for 09 the cap was expected to be close to 6k but with the weather playing against us and the issues with the fire martial we had to end way under that. As with Brandon sticking close to that same cap is a good estimate. Going over would mean the best possible outcome including sunshine and the parks being open along with the proper logistics completed in the way of how much each room can hold at one time.

For line formation for the 09 year things were harry because the hotel gave us methods that met their expectations and still gave us the room to work with. The problem was this expectation changed multiple times this year with a couple of changes made at con. This year the plan would be made to figure out how the hotel wants us to move forward sooner in the year and then make sure that plan doesn't change much so we know what we have to work with. As with fire escape routes of course as with the basement there is only so many people it can have in it so we have no intention of breaking that requirement. There is a good chance that lines will be the same way with the bulk of them starting at the top of the escalators and then being let down once the event is ready to go.

As in the way of security if you're meaning or Yoji then you have to think of them in more of a quality assurance capacity as opposed to security. They aren't aren't bonded as most security and if a situation was to arise most of them would have no training towards actually protecting themselves as opposed to a convention. They are more for line control, a helpful person to turn to if you have questions, and a person to go to in case there is a problem to get the proper personnel to the issue.

I think Rob nailed the security thing on the head. Really yojimbo are not security. We might have them watch some things at con for us, but that's really no different than asking someone to watch my backpack when I go use the restroom. That person isn't security for my backpack, they're just keeping an eye on it.

(As much as I really want to ask who you will be designating as Yoji #1 is elected, I'm sure thats notreally a question we can ask so...)

1. What is your easiest job when dealing with Operations; that is to say, where do you excell at most. You can be completely conceeded and prideful in this answer, I want to know where you feel you shine best in regards to the duties assigned to the Director of Operations.

2. Since we are most assuredly going to need more Yojimbo then this previous year (if we can get that many to volunteer! *crosses fingers* Will you being working closely with Yoji 1 on setting up a system sothat no area is under/over covered, what might be a tentative or basic plan of attack when organizing andusing yojimbo for line control and crowd control. 2b. Ideally how many staffers would you like to see in the yojimbo and/or operations section of the convention?

In response to 1 my best area is that I enjoy delegating work to those below me. If that isn't what you mean then my strength is on the side of Yoji. I've work mulitple years in customer satisfaction and I also enjoy that area of the team. At least at the beginning of my directorship I had no idea how reg worked and info booth along with volunteers we just a side note. Now that I've seen the year through I still don't know as much as I should towards reg to be operating it.

As for 2 as of right now I don't know how many yoji/ops staff I need to actually perform the duties needed. I still need to work on a skeleton schedule the would allow me to figure out what exact areas they would be needed for. I would estimate though on the side of 1 3/4x more to 2x than what we had this year in the state they're in. This might change as we work on better training towards them and set the expectation higher. More than likely though to allow for them to actually sleep though we would need this as a body count.

Currently I don't have any firm suspects. I am thinking Paul L'amoureaux but that is because I know him personally and know what he is capable of. Really though I still need to talk with my current Yoji one and some of my Yojimbo managers to see who of them would make prime candidates. I didn't actually get as much time this year as I would have hoped to review all of the people I had working under me so I don't have a decent understanding of what they're all capable of.

As a Yoji I had the priviledge of working with you both at con this year, I am excited for Kumoricon's future and will be very pleased with either of you as Ops Director. I am more than happy to assist in anyway I can with the convention next year including any pre-con duties and trainings. Now let me pick your brains

#1 Yoji Training - I feel a lot can be done in this area, especially with the bodies and resources we have in our staff, what kind of training do you feel Yoji's are lacking and how would you go about Yoji training in this upcoming year

#2 Scheduling - I saw a lot of great ideas trying to be implemented with the Yoji schedule this year, including dedicated Yojis for peacebonding etc, but sadly we were spread too thin at times to make due, how will you go about Yoji shift scheduling next year

#3 Warm Bodies - How many Yoji do we need?

Robert you said the Yoji are not security (I agree fully) rather that they are Quality Assurance for the Con - with this in mind

#4 What traits should a prospective Yoji posses (other than the inability to sleep, masochism, and no allergies to caffeine?)

1. What is your easiest job when dealing with Operations; that is to say, where do you excell at most. You can be completely conceeded and prideful in this answer, I want to know where you feel you shine best in regards to the duties assigned to the Director of Operations.

In my opinion the area I most excel at is dealing with people. I know that sounds sort of negative, but I really don't mean it that way. I've been told by other staffers that I come across as charismatic and I believe that to be my biggest asset in anything I do.

2. Since we are most assuredly going to need more Yojimbo then this previous year (if we can get that many to volunteer! *crosses fingers* Will you being working closely with Yoji 1 on setting up a system sothat no area is under/over covered, what might be a tentative or basic plan of attack when organizing andusing yojimbo for line control and crowd control. 2b. Ideally how many staffers would you like to see in the yojimbo and/or operations section of the convention?

At this current time I don't know how many staffers I will need working as Yojimbo. I plan on reworking a lot of the department and creating more solid documentation of what the job entails, and once I am able to finish that and sit down with the hotel and programming, I will have a better idea.

I can ask,who would you like (as long as they accept the position) for yoji #1

At this time I don't have a top pick. I will address this more in another post.

#1 Yoji Training - I feel a lot can be done in this area, especially with the bodies and resources we have in our staff, what kind of training do you feel Yoji's are lacking and how would you go about Yoji training in this upcoming year

I want to work with the board to bring in outside training related to the yojimbo duties. On top of that, I've been taking coursework in human resources management (wow that sounds contrived), and plan on sitting down and combing my notes and texts for the information I need to train the Yojimbo properly on customer service.

#2 Scheduling - I saw a lot of great ideas trying to be implemented with the Yoji schedule this year, including dedicated Yojis for peacebonding etc, but sadly we were spread too thin at times to make due, how will you go about Yoji shift scheduling next year

Getting it done earlier.

#3 Warm Bodies - How many Yoji do we need?

See Above

#4 What traits should a prospective Yoji posses (other than the inability to sleep, masochism, and no allergies to caffeine?)

Honestly if I get my way, none of those traits should matter in the slightest.

In my opinion though, the ability to talk to the convention attendees and not come across as overbearing, or like the recess duty at school is the most important trait a yojimbo can have.

As a Yoji I was often unaware of who VIPs were and sadly I don't think we provided the VIP service that we intended (priority seating, no waiting in lines, etc) how do we plan to rectify this next year?

Something I started thinking about while I was on the way to the store to get a new keyboard (mine disappeared =P)...

Both of the current candidates receive the emails sent to the Operations@kumoricon.org email address. I hope Rob is on board with me on this, but I think it would be a good idea for people interested in running for the following positions to go ahead and send us a letter of interest detailing why they think that they would be appropriate for the positions.

As a Yoji I was often unaware of who VIPs were and sadly I don't think we provided the VIP service that we intended (priority seating, no waiting in lines, etc) how do we plan to rectify this next year?

This one's not too bad. I'll just have to make sure that VIPs and their benefits are iterated better in the trainings through out the year.

Something I started thinking about while I was on the way to the store to get a new keyboard (mine disappeared =P)...

Both of the current candidates receive the emails sent to the Operations@kumoricon.org email address. I hope Rob is on board with me on this, but I think it would be a good idea for people interested in running for the following positions to go ahead and send us a letter of interest detailing why they think that they would be appropriate for the positions.

In the event that another person crops up as a potential candidate I will make sure that the information gets forwarded to them.

-Brandon

So noted. you'll have my letter-of-reference, including Yojimbo Suggestions by Saturday.

I'll also be adding on helpful suggestions and other things that all applicants could choose to do regardless of the circumstances, and an online database that I'll prep for both a) lost & found b) shifts and c) important day-to-day changes.

How do you plan to deal with staff conflicts between Operations staff members?

How do you plan to make people feel like Registration is more accessible if they lose a badge and are sent up for a replacement as per our policies?

Do you have a plan for where you might like to see the Registration office be located?

How do you plan to increase communications between Registration staff and next year's VIP coordinator to facilitate VIP badge pick-up?

Do you have any plans for increasing volunteer recruitment for 2010?

Sorry it took me a bit to get these ones replied to.

Conflict resolution isn't something you can plan on per se, but I always do my best to hear both (or more) sides of a story before coming to a conclusion. I know that conflict happens, and that jumping to conclusions makes it worse. I like to think that I approach situations calmly, and that is the strategy I use towards conflict.

Badge replacement is something that I will be looking into when I start working on planning out the 2010 reg system, as I will have to look into every aspect of reg. I still don't have all the pieces in place, but (assuming I get elected) will be making sure that we have the most streamlined and user friendly reg system to date.

The location of the reg office will have to be decided by the new board as it potentially impacts the budget to a point where it would need to be a board decision.

Radios, Email, and other happy mediums =D

I would love to see a larger group of volunteering for 2010, and I think communicating with the Promotions Manager, and working with the street team more will help facilitate this.

How do you intend to make sure your managers are kept in the loop throughout the year to keep communication problems to a minimum.

Absolutly! What's the point in having managers if you don't keep them i the loop?

....psst... HOW do you intend to do so?

Ack read that wrong, missed the how part.

I'm a firm believer in progress reports, and that's not just from manager to director. I would expect the management team to report to me what they've been doing as far as con work goes, weekly, bi weekly, or monthly depending. Conversely I would expect that they expect the same of me. This includes emailing them the relevant information from the board meetings, and keeping them updated on the work I've been doing for the department.

And of course, IM, Email, Cell phone, forums etc are all great ways to stay in contact.

Furthermore, I plan to keep the attendees in the loop by keeping the forums updated with the current registration mail out information, as well as staff openings in the boards for that.

To Rob twice during con I had a question the ops director should have had an answer for and all the answer I got was a shrug (no ask so n so, ect) and once (after a question with no answer) you said that you were going to just be a yoji next year, so what changed your mind?

Gomen, it is directed at current ops director. But to make it fair here is a question for you that is of the same subject: okay you are ops director, some one asks you a question the person who is ops director should know But you (for what ever reason)dont , what do you do?

#1 Yoji Training - I feel a lot can be done in this area, especially with the bodies and resources we have in our staff, what kind of training do you feel Yoji's are lacking and how would you go about Yoji training in this upcoming year

First off we need to set the impression right away of what we need/want out of the Yojis. With that said the training I'd expect would be more towards knowledge training. With Yoji being a quality and not security they are going to need to know what is happening around the con. Where rooms are, what is going on, what is going to be where. Also teaching them to work with the attendees. Pretty much customer service so they can work with attendees. Also getting started in the specialty things like peace bonding so we have a core group of yojis doing.

#2 Scheduling - I saw a lot of great ideas trying to be implemented with the Yoji schedule this year, including dedicated Yojis for peacebonding etc, but sadly we were spread too thin at times to make due, how will you go about Yoji shift scheduling next year

First off creating a skeleton schedule that would be made early on so everyone can be distributed early on in the year. Once the con schedule has been finished adding those hours requirements in.

This isn't something we know. At this time we had around 40 or 50 yoji. Since the convention isn't expect to grow as much this coming year as was expected for this last year it would probably be close to that same amount as long as we get the schedule working early and the distribution worked out.

As a Yoji I was often unaware of who VIPs were and sadly I don't think we provided the VIP service that we intended (priority seating, no waiting in lines, etc) how do we plan to rectify this next year?

Putting info into the trainings so of course so everyone knows who the point of contact who deals with them would be for starters along with of course what their benefits are. With the VIPs they are supposed to work with the coordinator who is in charge of VIPs. Other wise they actually need to come up and say to you "I'm a VIP, can I get in there and take my seat." They make up about 0.03% of our attendees so unless they step up and make it know that they should be getting special treatment there is no way for us to know who they are.

How do you plan to deal with staff conflicts between Operations staff members?

Brandon has it on this. You can't prepare for all conflicts. Some of them happen with no reason of why until after it has hit. Listening to what people have to say is the first step and maintaining an open mind towards the issue are the approach I figure towards it.

How do you plan to make people feel like Registration is more accessible if they lose a badge and are sent up for a replacement as per our policies?

Of course the first step is to making the reg system more streamlined. As it stands we only have one working station that can access the pre-reg info. I want to still get my plan into motion to have a database that can be accessed from multiple systems at all times. With this we can not only input the registrations as we're going be we can access the info faster so we can look up registrations with more ease. We also have a second badge printer so we are now not only limited to having only one person working on printing all badges. This means we can distribute the the printing of our specialty badges at con and our attendees reprints.

How do you plan to increase communications between Registration staff and next year's VIP coordinator to facilitate VIP badge pick-up?

If I'm correct the VIP badges were supposed to be up at Will Call. A maid squad member or another staffer were supposed to go through the lines and try to find the VIPs when they first arrive. Once they have been found they head over. Sign in and move on to either the coordinator who they had contact for already because they were called pre-con or they go get their rooms and come down later. The only thing that might make for a change would be to have their VIP coordinator or an assistant under them with their own area that is near the reg area so they can can just move the VIPs through as they come up personally.

To Rob twice during con I had a question the ops director should have had an answer for and all the answer I got was a shrug (no ask so n so, ect) and once (after a question with no answer) you said that you were going to just be a yoji next year, so what changed your mind?

So I strive to know everything. Its a bad habit of mine. With that said if I don't know the answer to something its either because the information hasn't been brought to my attention yet or I haven't gone to get it. I need to work on my communication skills between myself and my team so as things come up I know about them already.As to me saying I didn't want to be director I don't remember why I would have said that. I've gone into this each year with the thought that I love being apart of the con and where ever I can help and people want I'll be. Since I was nominated for the position I'm going to work to fill it to the best of my abilities. If the staff don't feel I can manage this then I'll find a place where people feel I can do my job. The only difference between me being staff as a director and as a staffer under a director (beside of course the work hours, responsibility, requirements) is that the staff choose if I'm good enough to be a director as opposed to a director if I'm good enough to be a staffer.

How do you plan to increase communications between Registration staff and next year's VIP coordinator to facilitate VIP badge pick-up?

If I'm correct the VIP badges were supposed to be up at Will Call. A maid squad member or another staffer were supposed to go through the lines and try to find the VIPs when they first arrive. Once they have been found they head over. Sign in and move on to either the coordinator who they had contact for already because they were called pre-con or they go get their rooms and come down later. The only thing that might make for a change would be to have their VIP coordinator or an assistant under them with their own area that is near the reg area so they can can just move the VIPs through as they come up personally.

On this subject, there wasnt really a problem with VIP pick up exept, there was no spot to check in VIP's, Kinda manifest destainy-ed a corner, and I never recived the VIP's contact list I had requested from OPS but those are things that just need some tweaking but all said the vips were checked in personaly by me, with the exeption 0f 2 I think when I had to track down some vip swag swag or using the bathroom, beause lets face no one can be everywhere that you needs them all the time

Indeed, no one person can be everything, by definition they would then be super-human. Instead human nature should be expected, backups and fail-safes built in where possible. I know that regardless of the director elected we will learn from the challenges of 2009 and prepare for them. Yet I wonder...

Potential Directors of Operations: What root-causes do you feel were behind problems we had in 2009, and presuming the symptoms of 2009 are addressed what potential new problems do you think we might face in 2010? How would you try to solve those (as well as any problems you missed but others propose)?

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Indeed, no one person can be everything, by definition they would then be super-human. Instead human nature should be expected, backups and fail-safes built in where possible. I know that regardless of the director elected we will learn from the challenges of 2009 and prepare for them. Yet I wonder...

Potential Directors of Operations: What root-causes do you feel were behind problems we had in 2009, and presuming the symptoms of 2009 are addressed what potential new problems do you think we might face in 2010? How would you try to solve those (as well as any problems you missed but others propose)?

For 2009 issues, I'll give a brief list of some behaviors that I think may have been present that potentially hindered success:-Starting late on projects-Delegating incorrectly-Not admitting when help was needed

I feel that if we can get past these issues we will be way more successful.

I'd rather not go too much deeper regarding our 2009 operations issues, because I don't want to get into finger pointing and other counter-productive processes.

Knowing the issues that we will face in 2010 is kind of an odd question Mike. The only issues are the ones that we aren't aware of in advance (as if we knew about them we could do something about them) so I think that the only way to answer this would be to be well, super-human. =P

Potential Directors of Operations: What root-causes do you feel were behind problems we had in 2009, and presuming the symptoms of 2009 are addressed what potential new problems do you think we might face in 2010? How would you try to solve those (as well as any problems you missed but others propose)?

For 2009 issues, I'll give a brief list of some behaviors that I think may have been present that potentially hindered success:-Starting late on projects-Delegating incorrectly-Not admitting when help was needed

I feel that if we can get past these issues we will be way more successful.

I'd rather not go too much deeper regarding our 2009 operations issues, because I don't want to get into finger pointing and other counter-productive processes.

Knowing the issues that we will face in 2010 is kind of an odd question Mike. The only issues are the ones that we aren't aware of in advance (as if we knew about them we could do something about them) so I think that the only way to answer this would be to be well, super-human. =P

I hadn't even considered reading this in a way that would lead to personal attacks. I was thinking more along the lines of how popular events were and some things I observed:

Operating as if the large hallway downstairs was part of the ballroom only (and not part of uncontrolled free-space).

That kind of stuff, and potential solutions for it. As an example airline style seating (by sections at appointed times). You could then stage lining up in another area entirely and lead that group in followed by the next. Each ticket would have a designated time at which lining up for that group could begin.

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That kind of stuff, and potential solutions for it. As an example airline style seating (by sections at appointed times). You could then stage lining up in another area entirely and lead that group in followed by the next. Each ticket would have a designated time at which lining up for that group could begin.[/quote]

I'm sorry if it came across like I was implying that you were attempting to lead me into personal attacks, it's just something I'd like to be careful about.

I think that we definitely are going to have our work cut out for us for determining spatial logistics of the convention, and if elected, I plan to put together a comprehensive guide as to how the space should be used. Line control is also something that both Robert and I are planning on discussing further with the hotel crew (assuming one of us gets the position). I know both of us have been looking at getting more stuff together to make those fancy rope line control poles (ps any coffee drinkers out there please save your cans for me =P)

As far as the seating in events goes, that is a big collaboration thing with programing, but seeing as Jaki has been very easy to work with (and hopefully anyone else that will get elected will be as well) that we will come up with something.

Knowing the issues that we will face in 2010 is kind of an odd question Mike. The only issues are the ones that we aren't aware of in advance (as if we knew about them we could do something about them) so I think that the only way to answer this would be to be well, super-human. =P

Knowing the issues that we will face in 2010 is kind of an odd question Mike. The only issues are the ones that we aren't aware of in advance (as if we knew about them we could do something about them) so I think that the only way to answer this would be to be well, super-human. =P

So, this is what i'm going to call the ultimate question of the day; what do you do if almost the entire registration team from this years convention isn't planning on returning for 2010?

As i was one of registration team for this year, and have heard from other staff members that you couldn't pay them enough to take our place, i'm just wondering how exactly we can be replaced? Since that's over ten of us who knew what we were doing leaving, there probably isn't going to be anybody there to train newbies or to know what they're doing.

So i guess i'm just really getting at, if there is nobody to let the attendee's in through the doors, how is the convention going to be a success or even happen?

You may infact wish to PM your further questions to the newly elected Director of Operations. That would be Brandon De Vore, (kalagei). Seeing as his possition on your question is most likely to be the one making the most difference now (We still love your thoughts though Rob!) It would be best to get his attention directly.